Public school? Whaaaat?

Josh has chosen to try out the neighborhood public school in September. I'm feeling excited, sad, anxious, fearful, optimistic - you name it, it's swirling around inside of me.

Of course I know that Josh is not Drew, they have very different personalities and needs. It's been quite a tough road this past year trying to find balance for them. Drew is needing quiet, peaceful time much of the day - both to pursue his interests with the concentration he desires and also to help keep his anxiety low. Josh, on the other hand, wants nearly constant interaction. Usually with Drew, and you can see where that becomes a problem. To be honest, I'm not up to the constant interaction either, being the introvert that I am.

We'd considered a classroom situation for Joshua before, but he hasn't been interested until now. I loooooove homeschooling, so that's hard to let go of for him. I also have a huge bag of fears related to public school, which will be a process of letting go, because I certainly don't want *my* hangups to be transferred to Josh. He deserves to have his own unique experience without my baggage. My plan is to follow the school plan until Christmas and then see where we are. That gives us a concrete amount of time to explore the experience, without giving up too early if it's going badly, but not feeling stuck if he wants to come back home. This is his choice, all the way. I won't force him to go, nor will I force him to stay (well, not forever). I do feel that he needs to give it a 'real' chance, not give up after a couple weeks. There will probably be alot of him to get used to and it will be difficult sometimes. Then again, I don't want to doom him to failure because of my negative thinking. I want him to find a situation/environment where he is happy and gets his needs met. I'm going to be flexible - I am! (breathing, breathing, breathing...)